 Okay. Good morning and welcome everyone. I think I am meeting you all after a long time. So quite excited to get started with this new course. We had done prayer and intercession last semester and this is the course on believers authority. It's also going to be about deliverance. It's going to be about demonology. So I'm sure, you know, we're all going to learn a lot together. Before we get into today's class, let's have a word of prayer. I want to request someone, anybody from class to please lead in prayer. Okay. Go ahead, Prince. Can we use the mic? Jesus, Lord, we thank you for this day, Lord Father. Thank you for bringing us all again together, Lord Father, to study and to learn, Lord Father. Jesus, as we are starting our new course, Lord Father, give us your understanding, give us your helpers, Lord Father, help us to understand more and give us the good insight of what your word tells, Lord Father, and help us to learn and help us to be rooted, Lord Father, in everything that you are teaching us and help us to be empowered, Lord, empowered by your word, by your Holy Spirit, Lord Father. We submit our minds, we submit our understanding, we submit our hearts to you, Lord Father. You come and have ways, you come and take control in Jesus, my precious man, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Prince. So this course, we will have two assignments. One will be a midterm assignment and the last one will be your final assignment. And the percentage is 50-50. Okay. So you have to give attention to both your tests, which will be announced. So most probably somewhere mid-February will be your first test. Okay. And I hope you all have your notes with you. I had posted it on the Google Classroom plus, I think the students here have it in print. So today, the very first lesson that we are going to have is about understanding the meaning of authority. Okay. So since we are saying as believers, God has given us authority, we have to walk in authority. The key question to ask is, what is authority? Unless we understand what is authority, how can we use it? How can we really, not just for ourselves, but also to see God's purposes accomplished through the authority that He has given us? You know, how can we even serve through that authority? We wouldn't know. And so the first thing is to know the very meaning of authority. So I just want to ask us a question. Have you seen people in authority in like normal life, regular life? So can you give me some examples of people with authority? Yeah, regular, regular life. Okay. A principal of a school has authority. Very good. That's a good picture. Okay. Superintendent of police. Wow. That's also a good picture. Yes. They carry authority. Prime minister. Wow. Okay. Great. You'll have to be louder. Chief minister. Yes. All authority figures. Who else? Judge? God. Okay. Ultimate authority. Son of God. Okay. Yeah, no problem. All correct answers. Go for it. Yeah. Holy spirit. Okay. So that's fine. Here on the chat, government officials, chief secretary. Yes, these are all examples of people in authority. Now I want to ask you, how do you know that they have authority? How do you know that they have authority? They'll use it, but how, what, what makes you think that they have authority? Okay, they have a position. Very nice. Yeah, they have a position. Okay. Can we say influence? Everyone listens to them. So they have an influence on people. Excellent. How else do we know that whoever we mentioned till now, they have authority? Okay. They have the power. Okay. So to do certain things, like let's say a principal, if they decide today is a very rainy day, students cannot come to school. So I'm saying it's a holiday. People can stay. Teachers, children, they can stay at home. But what if a child says, no, today is a holiday for everybody? You'll be like, you don't have any authority, but principal has the authority and they use it. Okay. So we are understanding there is a position. There is some influence. There is some power to do certain things. And all this explains that there is authority which has been given. So as we consider authority, you know, I'm going to go further. Okay, to understand authority. And there are a couple of points that are given in our notes. So you just follow along. Firstly, it says that authority is generally vested on an individual. So that means that authority is something which can be given. So if today the principal decides that, you know, so and so will be the headmaster or the headmistress of a certain school, they give the authority to that individual. Maybe till that day, the person was just a teacher. But from today, they are a headmaster or a headmistress. So in this way, we recognize that authority is and can be given. Now let's imagine a young man who goes to the police services and they say, go for the training and all that. He finishes the training. And then the whatever sub inspector of police, they say, I give you authority. You know, you are also a certain kind of a police or let's say, you are a traffic police from that day. They assign him as a traffic police. So one can be vested with authority or one can be given the authority till that day, he was not a traffic cop. But from today, he has been vested with authority to be a traffic police. So we can receive it from someone. Then a person who has authority has the right to influence. As I already shared how let's say a principal has influence on the school. If they make one decision, it is going to affect the entire school. Same way, we'll take prime minister. The prime minister makes a decision. It's going to affect the entire country. Think about the authority in the home. You have the parents. Parents make a decision. Oh, we are going to shift our house. It affects the family. So having authority also tells us that there is an influence and that influence we'll see later on that it is limited to that circle. Okay. So if I have authority as a parent in my family, I can make decisions in my family. I can't go to another family and make decisions. So there is a certain extent of influence which comes with that position or vested authority. Now the exercise of authority is not solely dependent on the capabilities of the individual. So what is the meaning of that? I just gave one example of a person who is now a traffic police. Okay. Now imagine with me this traffic police is very short, very thin, very weak looking. Okay. And they ask this police to go and stand on a very busy road. The people who are driving their cars and bikes and all they will listen to this traffic police or not. What do you think? They have to listen. Okay. But the person doesn't look so strong. Looks very weak and because very correct. So you see many a time authority will not depend on our capability but on what has been vested on us. So this traffic police can be very weak looking but if they raise their hand and say stop, if there are 20 cars, you know 50 cars, 100 cars, they all have to stop because authority is beyond just the capabilities of this one individual. You know same or whatever we are discussing will apply in our spiritual realm as well. Now we may look at ourselves and say oh I'm like this only you know all that but if God has given us authority, authority is beyond just you know normal capabilities. When we use our authority the demonic realm has to listen. You understand? So that's how it works. So authority is beyond. It's not always dependent on the individual's ability. It can be beyond that. In some cases authority is earned. Okay. What do we mean by that? You can have a manager okay in a company. Now if you look at the history of that manager, he may not have started as a manager. He may have started as a normal you know worker. He may have been part of teams but because of his good work, because of his hard work, you know because of all the excellence that they saw in him after whatever five years, seven years, he is now a manager. So sometimes authority has to be earned. You grow in that you know in that company or that role. It becomes better and better because of the credibility. So sometimes authority will come when we work hard and you know we earn it. Okay. So that's how authority works. There are also what are known as realms of authority. Realms are simply boundaries and in the spiritual, when we talk about spiritual things realms are very important. We have seen that even when it comes to prayer. So what are these realms of authority? I already said if there is a parent, they are an authority figure in one family. They cannot go and tell another set of children what to do and what not to do. Similarly let's say I am a traffic police in India and I go travelling you know I go to China and I go there and I try to stop the traffic. Will it work? I am a traffic police. What is wrong? What am I doing wrong? Exactly. It's not my country. It's not my territory. I am stepping out of my territory. I am trying to use my authority to work. Okay. So principle one school tries to apply bare rules on another school. Not happening. So realms of authority we are respected in that realm of authority. Okay. So we have to be very clear in the realms and it makes it easier for us to use our authority. Now a few more things is sometimes the authority is recognized by some symbol for example a badge okay a badge that you may put or you know you look at all these army officers you see that they're badges and you can recognize oh he's this level or you know he's a colonel he's a different things. So these badges which are given can also help us understand the level of authority that one has. Now here is another very interesting point about authority and that is authority can be given and we saw how powerful authority is. Okay. So if we have authority you know sometimes you have these movies right for one day you become the god in the world and then what will you do if you had all the powers of god what would you do you know you have movies like that because authority comes with power and great influence but authority can also go unused. So if I give you know just talking like you know like fantasy sort of a thing if I give you the authority okay today I give you the authority to be a you know a superhero somebody like spider-man or you know Superman what would you do you might choose to do something good you might choose to do something evil or here's the third case where you choose to do nothing and I tell you look I'm giving you the powers only for one week it's like how you get no it'll expire if you don't use it your data pack or whatever it'll expire so after that duration there's no use because you never utilized the capacity which was given so even in the Christian realm we can say that hey I'm a believer I have authority and all but maybe I don't know how to deal with demonic powers right and I'm going through a lot of battles you know tournaments and I'm wondering hey Jesus died on the cross to give me a victorious life why is it that all along I am living a defeated life maybe maybe I don't understand as a believer that I have the authority and the next thing is I can use the authority so as a believer if I don't use my authority you know Satan can have a great time tormenting and you know oppressing and all that and I'm never resisting it so you see authority is there but authority needs to be used if you don't utilize it it's gone okay so I am not saying God will take it away from us but I'm just saying it's of no use okay so we must use our authority so why is it that we want to learn about spiritual authority we understood you know some picture of authority we have in our minds now but why are we trying to understand about authority why should a believer understand about authority what do you think yes to pull down the strongholds very good I heard something that said correct so if we understand the authority that we have been given we'll be able to use it isn't it so yes that is another reason why it's good to understand the believer's authority okay any other reason why we want to yeah correct so we can we can fight against the powers of darkness now can I say that we can live a victorious life okay because what happens is in this world though you know we have been given authority Jesus has won the victory on the cross satan is still going around like a roaring lion waiting to devour people okay and he is more than happy to cause havoc in the lives of people in general and believers in particular so if we don't resist the devil you know as I said he will be able to subdue us and that's not a victorious christian life so if I have to stand against the wicked works of the devil I need to know that I have authority how can you come you know you have no authority leave devil and so for a victorious living I must understand that I have authority yes Sean sure so Sean is saying that we can't just say that we have the authority right and that authority is only given to some people is that what you're saying huh okay so Sean is saying we must be worthy of using that authority okay so we we will revisit this thought Sean okay so let it just be there for now so what we we've been saying so far is this is what authority means and the reason why we are trying to understand it is so that we can live with that authority so there are a couple of reasons which are listed in our notes here it says to walk victoriously in our personal lives to overcome and dominate demonic disturbances and disruptions to serve and assist those around us so we see in scripture and the passage given here is from Luke chapter 13 so what happens in Luke chapter 13 is there is a lady she is bound by a demonic power and she's bent over okay and when Jesus sees her he understands that she's a daughter of Abraham daughter of Abraham is nothing but a Jewish woman and why is it important that he said oh you are a daughter of Abraham because God had a covenant with Abraham that is a promise so Jesus recognized that what Satan was doing is he was trespassing the covenant and so he got very angry and he said okay woman that what loosed and the demon spirit left her and she became straight you know again so what do we see here Jesus used the authority to help others in this case there was a woman who was part of the covenant similarly if we know our authority and we are observing in the lives of others around us you know some form of you know work of the enemy we can also say hey Satan how can you do this in my friend's life how can you do this in my family how can you do this in my sibling's life I I will take authority against you know you have to stop this you have to leave in the name of Jesus so authority not only helps us be victorious but it also understanding authority also helps us to help others okay so that is the importance and of course fulfill all our responsibilities here on if you recall when we studied about prayer and intercession we said no Jesus said I give you the keys of the kingdom in Matthew chapter 16 and then what did he say whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven what are keys I give you the keys of the kingdom what are keys authority if I give you the keys of my house you have the permission to get inside my house it's I'm giving you the authority so in the same way what is Jesus saying the authority of the kingdom I have given you he's telling the believers I've given you whatever you bind so we have how do we use our authority binding losing so when we do things like this we're actually exercising our authority these are all reasons why you and I must understand about spiritual authority so we have some answers here on the chat okay so authority okay to resist the devil I thought someone had raised your hand as well for a question but that's all right you can you can just post it on the chat and we'll answer it fine so we have an idea now so these are all reasons why I must understand you know we can be believers for many years and we may not know about authority right and that is very sad that is very sad because then what happens is we say all the problems in my life God is doing it so I have to accept okay so many problems are there many challenges are there but what we end up doing is we live a defeated life because we think even the problems God is giving it to us so I should be a good believer I have to be a good Christian just go with this okay bear all the Jesus Boris cross I will bear my cross okay so it's all correct but we are missing the truth of what authority means in the word of God now talking about authority I said Jesus said I give you the keys of the kingdom now is it only Jesus who gave us the authority or did we get authority you know way before that well if we look at the book of Genesis you know we read there that when God created man he created man in his own image okay so in his likeness he created us Genesis one you know verses 26 27 you know that passage now when we say that we have been created in the likeness of God it means that there are those similarities in the nature of God is there any other creature which was created in the likeness of God is there no so only we human beings we have been created in the image of God it means we can you know we can have those attributes like God like we can we can love we can relate we have an identity okay so we're able to think so many of these things but even beyond that what we realize is that we are representatives okay okay so there's a comment here it says we humans are created in the image of God so that means the nature of God is something that we can we can we have and we are also representatives okay representatives is when the actual person is not there but they have sent someone on their behalf and you know we've talked about this earlier as well let's say there is a huge you know international function something is going on and the Prime Minister is invited but he's not able to be there so what does he do he sends another minister and so the minister takes whatever the letter or the the permission and actually goes for that meeting but who is this particular minister he's a representative and so what we realize from the book of Genesis is God put man and woman here on the earth when he is not here you know in the physical form we are the representatives meaning when all other creatures see us who should they who should they think of they should think of God okay the way we live the way we do things in the world we are representatives of God that's the way God intended for man to be you know and there are other passages of scripture where we read in Psalm 115 and verse 16 it says the heavens are the lords but the earth he gave to the sons of men so he put us here on the earth he made us in his likeness in his image we are his representatives but he also gave us responsibility the heavens are the lords who does the earth belong to the sons of men so if you have a room I'm just giving us some example here if you have your room in your house or your hostel and your room is a mess who should be questioned your parents or you us okay the reason is if something belongs to me I am responsible to be a good steward and scriptures are telling us the earth it belongs to us and so what is God's expectation you are the steward you have the responsibility things are going right things are going wrong I'm going to ask you why is the earth the way that it is because you have or I have the capacity to make decisions to take care of the earth so that is God's original plan that's how he planned in his mind and he created man and said come on man I'm making you I'm making you like me you can think you are my representative you will take responsibility for the earth so do you also see in this that God gave man and woman authority of course because he told them right you have to take care we read in those passages you know the sea creatures the creatures on the ground the birds you subdue them you know you take charge you subdue them and then God blessed man and woman and said be fruitful and multiply so what did God do originally God gave authority to man so coming back to Sean's question you know he said we have to be worthy of authority but you notice here Sean when God created a human being it's in a sense automatic that they have the authority you don't really need to become worthy in any way if God created a human being he created every human being in his own image and so there's an automatic authority if you want to call it that that we all have but here's the point that's not the end of the story what happened Genesis chapter 3 the fall right so the disobedience of Adam and Eve and sin came into the world sin corrupted the world now we are talking about authority so we are interested in knowing only about authority so now that man and woman has sinned tell me what happened to the authority okay okay so to recognize what happened let's go to the story of Jesus Jesus he was fasting for 40 days okay when he was fasting for 40 days what are some of the things that Satan told him you know he said I will give you the kingdoms of the world only if you bow down and worship me so then we ask the question hey hang on the kingdoms of this world they belong to Adam and Eve who is this Satan to come and say I will give you the kingdoms of the world but you see when the fall happened when the earth was corrupted with sin the authority shifted you got it the authority shifted into the hands of Satan and that is why there's even that passage which says the god of this world small g he's not really god but it just tells us he's carrying some authority on the earth right now because of sin see when we break the rules of God the laws of God the dynamics change changes and that's exactly what happened when Adam and Eve sinned originally God gave 100 take it I'll give you the authority you are my representative you have dominion you go for it you subdue the earth but once sin came into the world the authority now shifted to Satan it was in Satan's hands and so he started playing havoc in the world you know all kinds of works of the devil what are works of the devil sickness disease drive confusion poverty but talk about it so many evil things which we see in the world who is responsible okay or I mean who is perpetrating it it's Satan okay but we can as believers use our authority against what Satan is doing so this is how the authority actually shifted into the hands of Satan but the beautiful thing is God did not allow it to remain in Satan's hands what did Jesus do Jesus he became a man he came to the earth to pay the price for sin unless he did that okay he would not be able to we use the word redeem redeem is pay the price and buy back so Jesus he bought back our authority and no wonder in Matthew 16 Jesus said don't worry I give you the keys of the kingdom because he has the authority now and he's actually giving it to the believers even when you know Jesus finally ascended he said all authority on heaven and earth is mine but I'm giving it to you you go into all the world to make disciples of all nations teaching them everything that I have taught you um and baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit so Jesus we said the authority shifted into Satan's hands but he took it back okay and he gives it to the believer Jesus has given that authority back to every believer and now we can use the authority now Satan might say how come you know you are using your authority don't you know that he lost it when Adam and Eve sinned but how did we get exactly through the Lord Jesus we have now got our authority back and so we can use the authority that God has given us okay so so far any thoughts any questions yes yes friends please use the mic if you can yeah in Genesis we saw that God gave authority and dominion to Adam and Eve so like we talked about like when they sinned when fall happened the authority was shifted into the hands of the devil so it's like at the time when it was shifted to hands of the devil do do they still carry your authority or it was completely taken away yeah so see I'm like before starting we talked about like when we have authority it it is like we we be in a place of not using it but authority cannot be taken away so when they when fall happened is like they still have authority but they stopped using it or it's completely taken away sure so yeah good question so Prince is asking when the fall happened did Adam and Eve lose all the authority or did they still have so my answer would be they still had a certain level of authority okay because see you can use your authority in making good decisions so even right now there may be you know people who are unbelievers but you see sometimes they make such good decisions you know they know how they can overcome some of these bad temptations that that Satan brings so what are they doing they are using the God given authority even though they are not still part of the covenant so every human being that way we still have authority and we can influence by making right choices but of course you know the the kind of authority which was required to fight the devil that we lost yeah that we lost good good question any any other thoughts any other questions before we move on okay so today we've we've understood that originally God gave human beings authority but we lost it because of sin but again the Lord Jesus through his redemptive work on the cross has bought back that authority and yes given it to every believer and this authority right each believer has but from what we discussed earlier on today we realize that having the authority is one thing but if we don't understand it if we don't use it put it into practice it will never really work for us right yes yes Sean yeah yeah sure in the next 19th chapter we talk about the sons of scala yeah when they tried to do what all trying to do they weren't that they weren't successful because uh first I mean the first of all they weren't that well well versed in the world or in the world and they didn't know how to use the authority properly so that's why I think you know you should have a proper understanding about the authority and then use it correct so so that means I mean we all have a turn out saying that we don't but we also must be worthy of it must be well well knowledgeable enough to use it sure so Sean's point is the sons of Skiwa okay they to some extent they tried using the authority it never really worked but you know what the the major point in this acts 19 is the sons of Skiwa were not born again they did not belong to the kingdom of God see there are two kingdoms there's you we either we'll talk about it I think in other two classes there are two kingdoms when we are born again we belong to the kingdom of light or the kingdom of Jesus but when we are not born again as far as what the Bible says we come under the kingdom of darkness okay so that is the reason the demons they spoke to the sons of Skiwa they said Jesus we know Paul we know because they're all part of the kingdom of light you guys are still part of our kingdom and you're just using the principle what was the principle they were using they noticed Paul was casting out demons in the name of Jesus and the son those days in these times they were they were there were exhausts exhausts it was just their profession to cast out demons so when they saw that Paul and others are using the name of Jesus they just tried it basically but they were never part of the kingdom of Jesus which is why the demons told them Jesus we know Paul we know who are you and they got beaten up so the point I'm making Sean is even the youngest child in the kingdom has the authority I know it sounds like God how can you how can you give authority if somebody is born again just one minute ago somebody got born again but even the youngest child in the kingdom has the authority that I'm talking about and that's the amazing part okay so yeah and another incident you can see in the time of Jesus when Jesus was alive the apostle the apostle saw that a man was chasing out demons and that then they mainly told that man to stop but and they told Jesus about Jesus asked why is stopping him don't stop him from doing that that's true and another reason why he did that is because he said if he's a part of us then you know don't stop him so basically he must have been a believer you know in Christ so that's the reason Jesus said don't stop him yeah so yeah if you're part of the kingdom of God then the authority is valid for us okay like even a little child can actually rebuke and you can see that demons flee and mighty things happen so yeah we can all use our authority authority is taken taken back authority is taken back so from the prophets yeah so um for example Saul you know Saul he had the authority as a king but because of his disobedience towards God obviously you know David came on the scene later and Saul lost his authority so yeah that's something for us to remember Samson yeah see but in both these instances also like if you look at it in the light of the new testament we don't see a place where God takes it back it doesn't work like that we can lose it or we can leave it so that that's how it is because there is one scripture Romans 11 29 it says the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable meaning when God gives it he never takes it back but if I am not you know filled with faith I can give it up so it works like that yeah yes even in the case of Balaam when you know God told him not to go with them you know but and you know to go and put I mean he couldn't put a curse on there's the lights as the other as the king as the enemy of the new kingdom wanted but at the even at that point Terence is a authority to tell the prophecies wasn't taken away he still had that even though he was doing something that it's against God that God warned him not to do so true so see God is loving and long suffering his love is long suffering so the gifts may function for some time but again we should not take it as oh anyway God is there and you know he's helping in the minutes why are the gifts still functioning reason is the Bible says that the gifts are for the benefit of all God gives it for the sake of the people not for the sake of the preacher okay so God is gracious that way that the gifts can still function but not for long before you know it you may not see God at work in your life if you're walking in disobedience yeah so we have to be careful about these things okay all right I think we uh is that one more question yeah quickly we'll we'll take it up quickly and can devil steal our authority can devil steal our authority answer is no he can't but he can make you and me he can manipulate us yeah he can just manipulate us I have the authority all I can use it all the time but if I agree with the devil then I you know I I'm in a dangerous place okay great so let's pray now and close off for this morning whoever has a mic Vimal has a mic so please pray and we'll wrap up thank you Lord thank you for today's session Lord Jesus Lord as we are study about authority which you gave us Lord Jesus Lord help us help us to know more and we can stand in our authority Lord Jesus which you given us Lord Jesus Lord I pray each and everyone we are here to learn your word Lord Jesus Lord open our wisdom and give us wisdom and knowledge Lord Jesus and use us for your glory Lord Jesus thank you for this session thank you for Nancy ma'am thank you for everything in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you Vimal thank you everyone and we will meet again on Friday okay so Friday we'll have another class thank you bye for now